Garment finishing machine



Dec. 30, 1969 Filed Jan. 22, 1969 J. N. M MlLLAN GARMENT FINISHING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 oowvunnn on upumro arm nouns/v1 INWHRD MOVEMENT INVENTOR. J'ERRy IV. McM/lmv United States Patent 3,486,667 GARMENT FINISHING MACHINE Jerry N. McMillan, P.0. Box 167, Colville, Wash. 99114 Filed Jan. 22, 1969, Ser. No. 792,917 Int. Cl. D06c 71/16 U.S. Cl. 22357 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A drive means is described for moving the side chests of a garment finishing machine inward against a center form to press and finish a garment therebetween. The drive means includes a thrust arm pivotally mounted to the side chests and extending outward therefrom with cam rollers on the ends thereof. The cam rollers are movably mounted in upright tracks that have contoured cam surfaces for moving the thrust arms uniformly inward as the cam rollers move along the tracks. A rocker cross bar with tie rods interconnect the thrust arms. An actuator is connected to the rocker cross bar to pivot the rocker cross bar to pivot the thrust arms to move the cam rollers along the tracks to move the side chest inward.

Background of the invention This invention relates to upright garment finishing and pressing machines having a center form and side chests and more particularly to drive means for moving the side chests against the center form to press a garment therebetween.

One of the important advantages of upright garment pressing machines over horizontal pressing machines is that the upright machines take less floor space. However, one of the problems presented to the manufacturer of upright garment pressing machines is to provide a compact and eflicient drive means or mechanism for moving the side pressing plates or chests inward against a center form or buck to keep the width of the machine as narrow as possible without compromising the performance of the machine.

A garment pressing machine of this sort is described in United States patent application Ser. No. 725,560, filed Apr. 8, 1968 for moving the side pressing plates inward against the center form. The drive means disclosed in such application is a fluid bellows drive. Although such a drive is quite efficient, it is relatively difiicult and expensive to manufacture.

One of the principal objects and advantages of this invention is to provide an efficient drive means for moving the side plates inward against a center form in an upright pressing machine that maintains the width of the machine at a minimum and is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to operate, and substantially maintenance free.

An additional object of this invention is to provide an efficient drive means as previously described that has a positive drive action which initially moves the side chests rapidly inward to the center form and then presses the side plate against the center buck at a decreasingly slower rate.

A further object of this invention is to provide such a drive means that may be readily finely adjusted to vary ice the pressing pressure of the side plates against the center form during the pressing of the trousers.

A further object of this invention is to provide a drive means for moving the side plates inward in which the movement of the side chests results from a compound motion of a driving arm.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon the reading of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment.

Brief description of the drawings The preferred embodiment of this invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a trouser finishing machine having a center form centrally mounted thereon and movable side bucks on either side thereof for moving against the center form to press a pair of trousers therebetween; FIG. 1 shows the side chests in an open position;

FIG. 2 is a front view similar to FIG. 1 except showing a drive means moving the side chests inwardly to a closed position against the center form;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the trouser finishing machine as taken from the left in FIG. 1 showing certain elements of the drive means for moving the side chests;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary cross sectional view taken along line 4-4 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary cross sectional view taken along line 55 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary cross sectional view taken along line 66 in FIG. 3 and FIG. 7 is a graph illustration the inward movement of the side chests in relation to vertical movement of the drive means.

Detailed description of a preferred embodiment A trouser finishing and pressing machine is illustrated in the drawings and is designated generally by the arrow 10. The trouser finishing machine 10 has an upright frame 11 having a base 12, a left side 13 and a right side 14 with an overhead frame 15.

The trouser finishing machine has a center form or buck 17 centrally mounted on the base 12 in a substantially vertical orientation for receiving the trouser legs. A torso form or buck 18 is mounted on the overhead frame 15 immediately above the center form 17 for receiving the torso and waistband portion of the trousers. The torso form 18 includes a left hip buck 20, a right hip buck 21 and a fly buck 22.

Side plates or chests 24 and 25 are movably mounted on either side of the center buck for moving inward to press a pair of trousers between the side chests 24, 25 and the center and torso forms 17 and 18 (see FIG. 2). Each of the side chests 24 and 25 is substantially the mirror image of the other and has a lower straight section 26 for pressing against the center buck and a contoured upper section 27 for pressing against the torso form 18. A mounting bracket 28 is mounted on the backside of --the side chests 24 and 25 for providing a convenient attachment location for supporting and moving the side chests. The side chests are generally steam heated to provide hot pressing elements.

Each of the side chests 24, 25 is supported by a movable supporting mechanism 31 that includes two parallelogram frames 32. The parallelogram frames 32 include parallel upright frame members 33 that are pivotally mounted on base lugs 34. Horizontal members 35 pivotally interconnect the upper ends of the upright members 33 and extends outwardly pivotally connecting with lugs 30 on the back of the side chests to support the side chests. A cross brace 36 (FIG. 3) interconnects the parallelogram frames for each support mechanism 31 to provide lateral rigidity.

A spring-biased positioning device 38 interconnects each of the support mechanisms 31 with its respective side chest for adjusting the angular inclination of the side chests. Each of the positioning devices 38 is spring-biased to provide a self-centering feature as the chests move against the torso and the center forms 17, 18.

A drive means 40 is mounted on the frame 11 for uniformly moving the side chests inward and outward in unison from an open position, shown in FIG. 1, to a closed position, shown in FIG. 2. The drive means includes thrust arms 41 and 42 pivotally mounted on the backs of the side chests 24 and 25 respectively which extend outwardly therefrom in an inclined angle when the side chests are in the open position. The thrust arm 41 normally extends angularly downwardly and outwardly whereas the thrust arm 42 normally extends upwardly and outwardly.

Each of the thrust arms 41 and 42 has a collar 43 (FIG. 4) mounted on the inner end thereof surrounding a shaft 44. The shaft 44 extends through the back brace 28. A bifurcated collar 46 (FIGS. and 6) is mounted on the outer end of each of the thrust arms surrounding a shaft 47. Cam rollers or followers 48 are mounted on the end of the shaft 47.

The drive means 40 further includes upright tracks 50 mounted on the side frames 13 and 14 respectively for receiving and guiding the cam followers 48. Each of the tracks 50 has end stop members 51 and 52 to restrict the vertical movement of the rollers 48. Each of the tracks 50 has a contoured cam plate 53 mounted between the end members 51 and 52 defining a contoured cam surface 54 for receiving and guiding the cam followers 48 to control the movement of the thrust arms 41 and 42. Each of the contoured surfaces 53 has an initial substantially linear or straight section 55 and a curved section 56.

Adjustment blocks 57 (FIG. 6) are mounted between the contoured plates 54 at the contoured section and the side frames 13, 14 to move the contoured plate inwardly or outwardly for fine adjustment of the inclination of the plates 54. Set screws 58 and 59 extend through the end member 51 to the adjustment block 57 for adjusting the block vertically.

Retainer brackets 60 and 61 are mounted on the tracks substantially parallel to the contoured cam surfaces 54 and spaced therefrom for retaining the rollers 48 against the contoured cam surfaces 54 as the rollers 48 move vertically on the tracks.

The drive means further includes a rocker cross bar 63 that is pivotally supported intermediate the ends 65 and 66 by a pivotal mount 64 of the overhead frame 15. The ends 65 and 66 of the rocker cross bar 63 are substantially vertical above the tracks 49 and 50 respectively. Tie rods 67 and 68 extend from the ends 65 and 66 to the shafts 47 of each of the thrust arms 41 and 42 for pivoting the thrust arms in response to the rocker cross bar 63.

A power means 70 (FIG. 3) is connected to the cross bar 63 for pivoting the rocker cross bar in one direction to move the cam rollers 48 along the tracks 50 to push the side chests 24 and 25 inwardly against the center form. As previously stated, when the side chests are in the open position the thrust arms 41 and 42 extend at an inclined angle to the horizontal. When the rocker cross bar is pivoted to close the side chests the cam followers move along the tracks 50 to pivot the cross arms 41 and 42 respectively to a substantially horizontal position as shown in FIG. 2. The initial pivotal movement of the thrust arms 41 and 42 as the cam followers move along the tracks is translated into a substantial inward movement of the thrust arms 41 and 42 to initially move the side chests at a fast rate. As the thrust arms 41 and 42 move closer to horizontal orientation, the cam followers ride on the curved contoured section of the contour plates 53 to laterally move the cam followers inwardly to continue the inward movement of the thrust arms 41 and 42. The curvature of the end of the contoured plate of the curved section decreases to decrease the rate at which the side chests are moved inwardly with respect to the vertical movement of the rollers along the tracks.

The movement of the side chests results from the compound actions of the pivotal movement of the thrust arm and the curvature of the contoured plates 53. This is illustrated by the curve in the graph of FIG. 7. The inward movement of the side chests and the thrust arms is illustrated in the horizontal direction whereas the vertical movement of the rollers and the ends of the cross bar 63 is illustrated in the vertical direction. The initial upward movement of the cam followers causes a rapid inward movement of the side chests. As the cam follower moves along the linear section 55, the rate of inward movement with respect to the movement of the ends of the cross bar 63 decreases to a substantial constant rate until the side chests are against the center form 17. At this point the rate of inward movement with respect to the vertical movement of the ends of the cross bar decreases sharply to form a flare 78. The Slope of the flare 78 and the curve 75 may be regulated very finely by the vertical movement of the adjustment blocks 57.

The power means includes a cylinder 71 with a rod 72 connected to the rocker arm. Tension springs 73 are connected between the tie rod 67 and the side frame 14 to pivot the rocker cross bar in the opposite direction to move the side chests to the open position when the pressure is released from the cylinder 71.

It should be understood that the above described embodiment is simply illustrative of the principles of this invention and numerous modifications may be made without deviating from the principles thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. In an upright garment pressing machine having a frame with an upright center form centrally mounted on the frame for receiving a garment and side chests movably mounted on the frame on the opposite sides of the center form for inward movement from an open position spaced from the center form to a closed position against the center form to press a garment therebetween, wherein the improvement includes a drive means for moving the side chests, comprising:

(a) upright tracks mounted on the frames spaced from the side chests;

(b) thrust arms pivotally mounted to the side chests and extending therefrom at inclined angles when the side chests are in the open position, said thrust arms having outer ends that are movable along the tracks to pivot the thrust arms;

(c) a rocker cross bar pivotally mounted on the frame intermediate its ends;

(d) tie rods operative ly interconnecting the ends of the rocker cross bar and the outer ends of the thrust arms; and

(e) power means mounted on the frame connected to the rocker cross bar for pivoting the cross bar to uniformly move the outer ends of the thrust arms along the tracks to pivot the thrust arms to a substantially horizontal orientation to push the side chests inward from the open position to the closed position against the center form to a garment therebetween.

2. In an upright garment pressing machine as defined in claim 1 wherein cam rollers are mounted on the outer ends of the thrust arms and wherein the upright tracks 5 6 have contoured cam surfaces engaged by the cam rollers References Cited for guiding the cam rollers vertically and horizontally in- UNITED STATES PATENTS ward as the thrust arms are pivoted to push the side chests inward against the center form. 2,627,128 2/1953 Jones 3. In an upright garment pressing machine as defined 5 2,669,374 2/1954 JQneS in claim 2 wherein each of the contoured cam surfaces 3,208,652 9/1965 Zlmmermann 223 73 has an initial straight section and a subsequent inwardly 3,378,178 4/1968 Stewart 223-57 curved section to guide the corresponding cam follower inward as the cam follower moves vertically on the cam MERVIN STEIN Pnmary Examiner surface to transpose the vertical movement of the cam 10 GEORGE V. LARKIN, Assistant Examiner fol-lower to a horizontal movement of the thrust arm to continue the inward movement of the corresponding side US. Cl X.R.

chest as the thrust arm is pivoted to the horizontal 3821; 223-73 orientation. 

